You have just launched a very original communication campaign. Can you tell us the reasons behind your choice of this style?
We wanted to regain the offensive in our communications territory, and make ourselves heard rapidly and decisively, despite limited budgets. I am convinced that the fastest route to breathing life into a brand vision is to signal a clean break. And our vision, positioning, and promise are those of an open world that provides a clean break from the existing one.

Our SWATS campaign is a direct follow-on from our 2005 strapline, ‘Architect of an Open World™’. This campaign already suggested the theme of escape, and was also slightly tongue-in-cheek. So freedom was already at the heart of this campaign. Now we are bringing the actual liberators center stage.
What Bull is offering – as architect of an open world – is, in fact, really just that: to free-up information systems and reduce their complexity. This pitch and its storyline resonate fully with today’s challenges: with Bull’s range of products and services underpinning it all.
In effect, in the current economic climate, the ability of businesses to innovate and adapt dynamically to their environment is becoming a decisive factor in growing competitive advantage. Information systems are accelerators for company performance, in the same way that public sector bodies can only be as flexible, responsive and inventive as their information systems will allow them to be.

What is the strategy behind this publicity campaign?
We feel this kind of publicity is original, modern, young and a far cry from traditional campaigns in this field. There will be three stages: the first exploits the element of surprise, with the SWATS, or Secret Warriors Against The System, and this will be followed by an explanatory stage, and then by a stage that pulls it all together.
The ‘teasing’ stage was unveiled at the Linux Solutions event in Paris on 30 January, with the launch of SWATS: non-violent dissidents ‘fighting’ for an open world in order to bring enterprises the flexibility and liberty they need to strengthen their competitive position. This first stage was followed by a viral campaign. Like the Web 2.0, we want to present this in such a way that users will talk about it, spread the word, rather than spending a fortune on pages of advertising.
Now we have arrived at the ‘revelation’ stage: the SWATS are in fact Bull. Bull defending the flag of an open world. This is our manifesto, our signature, our business territory.
At the end of March, a co-ordinated campaign will commence around the theme of Seven initiatives for an open world, each of which illustrates our vision and provides solutions. What, in real terms, does an open world really mean for an enterprise or a public sector organization? What are the benefits and advantages it offers? Each initiative contributes to liberating an information system’s potential and fulfils the three major concerns of IT Directors and CIOs: encouraging growth and innovation, achieving improvements in flexibility, and guaranteeing security.
By pledging openness throughout its range of products and services, Bull has taken up a central position at the core of this revolution through its strategic choices, its skills, partnerships, and its capacity to network with numerous players. We want to let people know all this, in real terms.

Will the same campaign be launched in other countries?
This is a global campaign, deployed in the majority of countries in which Bull is present.